¹² The city is left in ruins,
    its gates battered down.

¹² The people of Maroth^[a] anxiously wait for relief,
    but only bitterness awaits them
as the Lord’s judgment reaches
    even to the gates of Jerusalem.

⁹ For my people’s wound
    is too deep to heal.
It has reached into Judah,
    even to the gates of Jerusalem.

¹⁸ For Jerusalem^[a] is empty and desolate,
    a place haunted by jackals.

⁹ Jerusalem’s gates have sunk into the ground.
    He has smashed their locks and bars.
Her kings and princes have been exiled to distant lands;
    her law has ceased to exist.
Her prophets receive
    no more visions from the Lord.

⁴ The roads to Jerusalem^[a] are in mourning,
    for crowds no longer come to celebrate the festivals.
The city gates are silent,
    her priests groan,
her young women are crying—
    how bitter is her fate!

¹¹ “I will make Jerusalem into a heap of ruins,” says the Lord.
    “It will be a place haunted by jackals.
The towns of Judah will be ghost towns,
    with no one living in them.”

¹⁴ The palace and the city will be deserted,
    and busy towns will be empty.
Wild donkeys will frolic and flocks will graze
    in the empty forts^[a] and watchtowers